Page 8 - AfrOil Week 33 2019
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AfrOil POLICY AfrOil
He agreed that the project would bolster the country’s energy security, as it would lead to a reduction in petroleum product imports.
Nevertheless, he took exception to assertions about the likely impact of the scheme on domes- tic fuel prices. Even if it built a re nery, he said, Namibia would still have to import feedstock. As a result, it would remain vulnerable to uctua- tions on the world oil market, he stated.
“[A] local re nery alone will not shield us from geopolitical upsets, as the country is not yet a crude oil producer,” the executive director remarked. He conceded that such a plant could,
if operated e ciently, improve conditions on the domestic petroleum product market by increas- ing supplies. Even so, he said, the impact on fuel prices might not be signi cant.
One of the potential investors that has stepped forward recently is Clasox Petroleum, a local company that is seeking to acquire a 0.1-square km site near Walvis Bay for the pur- pose of building a re nery.
Comsar, a company owned by the Russian billionaire Rashid Sardarov, has also indicated its willingness to spend NAD21bn ($1.4bn) on a similar project.
THE government of Nigeria’s Edo State has announced that a state-sponsored modular re nery will begin operations by the end of 2019. In a recent statement, state government spokes- man Crusoe Osagie said the modular unit had been completed and would be inspected by Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) o cials before being shipped to Nigeria.
e Edo modular re nery will be built in Ologbo in the Ikpoba Okha area of Edo by Edo Refinery and Petrochemicals Co. The facility will process 6,000 barrels per day (bpd) of local crude and will produce re ned prod- ucts such as kerosene, diesel, naphthalene and petrochemicals.
e project company was launched by the Edo state administration of Godwin Obaseki, a former investment banker who has been a major proponent of infrastructure projects. In September 2018, the local government said in a statement that Obaseki had approved a state contribution of NGN700mn ($1.94mn) for the modular re nery.
This development followed an earlier announcement that the state government had signed a memorandum of understanding
(MoU) with Chinese rm Peiyang Chemical Equipment Co. (PCC) for the construction of a 1,000 bpd re nery, which was due to be com- pleted in April 2019.
As has come to be expected from the Nige- rian downstream, statements about the pro- ject created confusion, with a subsequent announcement saying that the MoU had been signed with a consortium consisting of PCC, Sinopec International Petroleum Service Corp. (SIPS) and African Infrastructure Partners (AIP) for a 5,500 bpd unit.
As reported in July, the Edo refinery will be constructed in two phases, with the first intended to complete a 500 bpd demonstra- tion re nery and the second to build a 5,000 bpd facility. The project’s technical director, Tim Tian, has been quoted by local media as saying that the plant would receive feedstock from Nigerian Petroleum Development Co.’s (NPDC) oil mining lease (OML) 111, near Benin City.
According to Tian, when operational, the re nery will produce 500,000 litres per year of diesel, 300,000 litres per year of naphtha and 200,000 litres per year of fuel oil.
PROJECTS & COMPANIES
Edo Modular Refinery to start up soon
Freemages
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w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 33 20•August•2019
